Measles kills hundreds of children in Pakistan
Source: Agencies |
January 2, 2013, Wednesday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
MEASLES cases surged in Pakistan last year with hundreds of children dying of the disease, an international health body said yesterday, as health officials said they had launched a new vaccination campaign in affected areas to immunize hundreds of thousands of others.
Pakistan struggles with a beleaguered health care system, unsanitary conditions in many parts of the country and a lack of education about how to prevent disease. All those factors make it difficult to combat infectious diseases such as measles and polio.
A spokeswoman for the World Health Organization said that 306 children died in Pakistan of measles in 2012, compared with 64 the year before.
Maryam Yunus said the jump was most pronounced in southern Sindh province, where measles killed 210 children in 2012. She said only 28 children died there in 2011.
The WHO did not give a reason for the increase in deaths, but a provincial health official in Sindh said the disease hit areas where poor families did not vaccinate their children.
Provincial health minister Saghir Ahmed said 100 children died in Sindh in December alone.
He said health officials recently launched a campaign to vaccinate 2.9 million children in the affected areas of the province and urged parents to get their children vaccinated.
Many Pakistanis, especially in rural areas, view vaccination with suspicion as a Western plot to sterilize Muslims. In December, nine health officials working to immunize Pakistanis against polio were killed by militants opposed to the campaign.
Pakistan struggles with a beleaguered health care system, unsanitary conditions in many parts of the country and a lack of education about how to prevent disease. All those factors make it difficult to combat infectious diseases such as measles and polio.
A spokeswoman for the World Health Organization said that 306 children died in Pakistan of measles in 2012, compared with 64 the year before.
Maryam Yunus said the jump was most pronounced in southern Sindh province, where measles killed 210 children in 2012. She said only 28 children died there in 2011.
The WHO did not give a reason for the increase in deaths, but a provincial health official in Sindh said the disease hit areas where poor families did not vaccinate their children.
Provincial health minister Saghir Ahmed said 100 children died in Sindh in December alone.
He said health officials recently launched a campaign to vaccinate 2.9 million children in the affected areas of the province and urged parents to get their children vaccinated.
Many Pakistanis, especially in rural areas, view vaccination with suspicion as a Western plot to sterilize Muslims. In December, nine health officials working to immunize Pakistanis against polio were killed by militants opposed to the campaign.
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